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iso] MARINE REVIEW. 2 PROMOTION IN THE NAVY. BY LAWRENCE IRWELL. The navy is, atid usually has been, the special pet of both the govern- ment and congress. There is now little foundation for the belief--a belief which was at the root of the Spanish contempt of the American navy at the beginning of the war with Spain--that American crews are a decidedly mixed lot as to nationality; that sailors on American ships are chiefly Norwegians, Germans and Italians, with a sprinkling of Japanese, and that native-born Americans are hard to find. The truth is, however, that the majority of the men of the American navy are citizens. Even as far back as 1894, of the enlisted force of the navy, 50 per cent. were native-born sons of Uncle Sam, 70 per cent. were American citizens, and more than ' 90 per cent. were residents of the United States. Of the 30 per cent. of aliens, more than one-third had declared their intention of becoming citizens. And not only does the navy stand much better in this important respect today, but there never was a time when places in it below the rank of commissioned officers were so attractive to Americans. Several reasons might be given for this. One is that the money wages of a large number of sailors in certain grades have been greatly increased in recent years, thus bringing the navy pay-list into favorable comparison with that of outside labor. .But the chief reason for the great change that has taken place in the conditions of 'the navy of late lies in the fact that, as the old wooden ships and the old-fashioned steam-propelled ships have given place to modern marine machines, the navy has become more and more suited to the taste of capable Americans. The gradual change in the navy has brought about a marked change in the personnel of the petty officers and the enlisted men, as well as in the conditions under which they work. It may almost be said of the American as of other navies that there are no longer any sailors in the service. The only sailing ships that ever move from place to place now are the school ships and training ships. The navy, it is true, still ships boys and seamen at wages ranging from $9 to $24 a month, to whom bounties of three months' pay are given upon re-enlistment, and it is not an uncommon thing to see an enlisted man paid off at the expiration of -his three years' term of service with several hundred dollars to his credit. The regular blue-jackets of the navy are a decidedly well-paid class, and are much better off than their brethren of the. merchant marine. Besides seamen proper, the navy also ships a host of machinists, mechanics, boilermakers and firemen at wages sometimes exceeding $70 per month, in addition to board, afloat or ashore. The new navy, as it grows, will need an ever-increasing number of men in these special classes--the classes which contain the pith of American ingenuity and skilled labor. There are now many new ships building, and every new iron or steel steam-propelled monster that is added to the navy creates an increased demand for the skilled and highly-paid classes of enlisted men. Already there are many hundreds of machinists at $70 per month, boiler- makers at $60, blacksmiths at $50, plumbers at $45, water tenders, oilers, firemen and painters at between $30 and $40 per month, to say nothing of coppersmiths, shipwrights and coal passers at wages varying between $22 and $50 per month. Even the seamen class, the worst paid of all in its lower branches, is very well paid in the higher ranks. The boy who enters as a third-class appréntice at $9 per month may reasonably hope to become chief master-at-arms at $65 per month; or, better still, he may reach the coveted rank of warrant officer, with pay and privileges the same as those of the lieutenancy grades, namely, from $1,200 to $1,900 per annum, exclusive of board. Let us glance for a moment at the interesting class of naval ap- prentices--the carefully trained boys upon whom Uncle Sam founds his hopes of ultimately manning his ships--boys who are conspicuous by reason of their intelligence and patriotism. If a boy decides to enter the navy, there are two ways of going about it. He can enter either as an officer or as an ordinary Sailor; but in the latter case he must remember that although he may rise to the honorable and well-paid rank of warrant officer, he can never hope to tread the quarter-deck as a commissioned officer. It may be interesting, first, by way of comparison to take a few facts and figures from the British navy, the only other navy suitable for comparison on the score of pay and promotion. Boys are taken into the British navy between the ages of fifteen and sixteen and a half years, and by diligence and good conduct they can rise, as in the American service, to the rank of warrant officer. They make an engagement to serve for ten years on attaining the age of eighteen, and after that age they are rated as ordinary seamen and able seamen as soon as they are qualified. When a boy enters the service he receives gratuities of £5 ($25) for outfit and £1 for bedding, and on being rated a first-class boy he receives a further sum of £2 10s. ($12.50) for clothing purposes. The scale of pay, -in addition to a liberal supply of provisions, is as follows: Boys receive from £9 ($45) to £10 12s. ($53) a year; ordinary seamen from £18 to £23 ($90 to $115); able seamen from $145 to $160, petty officers from $175 to $290, and warrant officers from $500 to $820 a year. Men are allowed pen- sions after twenty years' service, or when disabled, of from $90 to $260 per annum; and those who remain in the service after twenty years can obtain 'larger pensions. Warrant officers receive pensions rising to $750 a year, and pensions are given to their widows. To sum up, then, any ordinary boy who joins the English navy has it within the possibilities of his career to become some day a warrant officer, and to retire with a pension of $750 when he is not necessarily more than forty years of age. Let us look now at Uncle Sam's side of the account. Boys of good, character who have no physical defect, and who can read and write well, are admitted into the American navy between the ages of fourteen and eighteen years. They must serve till the age of twenty-one as boys or junior seamen, and after that age they rank as seamen or petty officers. They are allowed a sum of $45 for outfit. To ascertain the exact number of petty officers on board a ship is by no means easy; but in any case the number of these minor prizes is-encouragingly large, while still higher up, as the final goal of the sailor's.aspirations, are the four warrant officer- ships, the, positions held. by the boatswain, the carpenter, the gunner, and ; the sailmaker, whose pay,and privileges, as given above, aré the same as): those of. the junior officers. The pay.,of boys enlisted as third-class ap- prentices,.is) $9 per month; the next promotion to second-class brings $10; the next, to first-class.apprentices, $11 a month. Further up the scale we find second-class seamen apprentices with $19, followed by first-class sea- men apprentices with $24 per month. (The latter two grades correspond respectively to ordinary seamen and able seamen--or simply seamen.) From a comparison of these figures we can see that a first-class seaman apprentice, or a seaman, receives $288 a year, a sum which is $128 in excess of the highest amount paid to a first-class seaman in the British service. Even a third-class apprentice in the American service receives more pay than an English naval cadet; a second-class seaman apprentice receives more than an English midshipman, and an American lieutenant or boat-- swain receives in pay a sum far in excess of an English lieutenant's pay, even with all the occasional extra money. allowances thrown in. An Eng- lish lieutenant's highest pay is about £185 ($925) a year; the pay of an American lieutenant or warrant officer ranges from $1,200 to $1,900 a year. This, then, is the income to which a poor boy may reasonably look for- ward to attaining in the United States naval service; and at the age of sixty-two years he can retire with a pension of three-quarters of his cur- rent pay, just the same as a commissioned officer. That is, he can catry with him on his retirement a perpetual order on the treasury for a sum of from $800 to $1,425 a year, the lower figure of which considerably exceeds the $750 which is the utmost limit of the British warrant officer's pension, The latter, however, has one great advantage, and one which tends to the good of the British service by hastening promotion, namely, that he can carry away his pension of $750 when he is not more than forty years of age. Even if the American seaman does not attain to warrant rank, there is still the middle grade of the petty officer, whose name is legion in Uncle Sam's navy, and who receives from $27 to $70 a month, and can retire with a pension after thirty years' service...A boy with a gift for music can easily get himself transferred to the special class that includes musicians and pharmacists, and here the wages vary between $18 and $60 per month. There is a special provision of law to encourage good men to remain long in the service. The ordinary term of enlistment is three years, and by this provision any honorably-discharged man who re-enlists within three months from the date of his discharge returns to the navy with $1 per month additional good-conduct pay. The extra dollar is added to each enlistment, and there may easily be half a dozen re-enlistments, or pos- sibly, a dozen. It means that a good man who sticks to the service for life gets a three months' vacation with full pay every three years, followed ' by an increase of pay. It usually happens that the man who thus enlists and re-enlists has reached the grade of petty officer at his third or fourth enlistment, and after that the larger pay of his new rank increases regu- larly a dollar per month every three years, should he choose to remain in the service. And if physically disabled, a man, after ten years' service, is entitled to a pension of $8 a month, and after twenty years' service to half his pay. In addition to these privileges, frequent short furloughs of from three to six days are granted to enable boys and men to visit distant rela- tives, and always on full pay. A boy has almost unlimited daily liberty, and while in port, if his home is near, he is allowed to stay there from Saturday to Monday if his conduct on board ship is satisfactory. Turning again to the skilled workers in the navy today, the mass of them receive, in the long run, better pay than the avarage wage-earners -on shore, without counting the added advantages of subsistence, credit for service, pension, etc. It is true that mechanics in the navy receive nominally smaller wages than. men of their trades ashore, but they are subject to none of the uncertainties of business or weather, or the stop- pages caused by sickness. The navy "goes right on' in times of de- pression of trade, and there is no docking for sickness. Employment and pay are secure for the rest of a man's days, and promotion is almost within his own control. Nearly every walk in life has ex-members of the navy in its ranks, for it has-been found by hundreds that a cruise will do much to educate and develop a bright young fellow who wants to get a few hundred dollars ahead with a little experience of the world thrown in. The aristocratic organization Shine navy has doubtless hitherto kept many self-respecting men from enlisting, but the service is vastly more democratic in practice than in theory. In this respect it offers a refresh- ing contrast to the army. Anything more pleasing than the harmonious blending of the strictest discipline with the maximum of companionship, so characteristic of the relations between officers and men on board a well- regulated American war ship, is not to be found in any other department of life. True; no enlisted man can hope to become a commissioned officer, but the enlisted man of tried ability and known good conduct always earns the respect and consideration of his superiors. The brutal officer is almost unknown in Uncle Sam's navy, and the self-respecting enlisted man is rarely made to feel that anyone looks down upon him. Moreover, the seaman whose conduct does not curtail his "liberty," may see foreign lands as an enlisted man in a satisfactory and instructive fashion. There are hundreds of enlisted men in the navy who are thoroughly trusted ashore. A man's reputation for good conduct when away from his ship is a matter of careful record. Any young man who makes up his mind to endure with patience a life of discipline and regularity invariably finds the navy agreeable, interesting and profitable. Perhaps the above facts, founded on a careful study of the subject, may serve to explain the reasons for the popularity and efficiency of the United States navy. ECONOMY OF LARGE SCHOONERS. "As bearing on the money making abilities of the large schooners now generally used in the coasting trade," says the Commercial Bulletin of Boston, "some figures which have been compiled by Mr. Frank N. Tandy, general marine agent of this city, will be of interest. Mr. Tandy has taken the statements of four large schooners, two four-masters and two five-masters, which have been used in the Atlantic coast trade, and in a very full table clearly shows what vessels of this type are capable of earning, even when freight rates are as low as they are at present. Vessel No. 1 made twelve voyages, consuming 512 days to date. It paid dividends of $16 to $84 per trip on each sixty-fourth share, the total for the twelve trips figuring up $442 per 1-64 or 38.8 per cent. of the cost of the ship in that time. This vessel cost $72,960; her gross tonnage is 1,904 and her carrying capacity 3,000 tons. The three other vessels from whose state- ments data are compiled paid from $12 to $100 per 1-64 each trip, and the average for the fleet shows a dividend of $33 per 1-64 each trip and a yearly profit of 27.5 per cent. on the investment. The net earnings have so far averaged 42.9 per cent. of the gross receipts and 18.9 per cent. of the total cost of the vessels has so far been paid. : Work on the new water power canal at Sault Ste. Marie will be con- tinued all winter.